Thursday, March 24, 2011

Our Flag

This was shared with me recently and I thought it deserved to be passed on.

You might remember a news story several months ago
about a crotchety old man
who defied his homeowners association and refused to
take down the flagpole on his property
and the large flag that flew on it.Now you can find out who, exactly, that old man was.

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On June 15, 1919, Van T. Barfoot was born and it probably didn't
make much news back then.Twenty-five years later, on May 23, 1944, near Carano , Italy , Van T. Barfoot,
who had enlisted in the US Army in 1940, helped set up defensive positions and was sent to conduct patrols to scout the German lines. When his company was ordered to attack on the morning of May 23, Barfoot, now a technical sergeant, asked for permission to lead a squad. Because of the patrols he had made, he knew the terrain and the minefield which lay in front of the German position. He advanced alone through the minefield, following ditches and depressions, until he came within a few yards of a machine gun on the German flank. After taking out the gun with a hand grenade, he entered the German trench and advanced on a second machine gun, killing two soldiers and capturing three others. When he reached a third gun, the entire crew surrendered to him. Others also surrendered and Barfoot captured a total of seventeen German soldiers. He had killed 8.When the Germans launched an armored counterattack later in the day, Barfoot disabled one tank with a bazooka, then advanced into enemy-held territory and destroyed an abandoned German artillery piece. He returned to his own lines and helped two wounded soldiers from his squad to the rear.That probably didn't make much news either, given the scope of the war, but it did earn Van T. Barfoot, who retired as a colonel after also serving in Korea and
Vietnam , a Congressional Medal of Honor.

What did make news was a neighborhood association's quibble with
how the 90-year-old veteran chose to fly the American flag outside his suburban
Virginia home. Seems the rules said a flag could be flown on a house-mounted
bracket, but, for decorum, items such as Barfoot's 21-foot flagpole were
unsuitable.

He had been denied a permit for the pole, erected it anyway and was facing court
action if he didn't take it down. Since the story made national TV, the
neighborhood association has rethought its position and agreed to indulge this
old hero who dwells among them."In the time I have left I plan to continue to fly the American flag without
interference," Barfoot told The Associated Press.
As well he should.
And if any of his neighbors still takes a notion to contest him, they might want to
read his Medal of Honor citation.

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It indicates he's not real good at backing down.

WE ONLY LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE...
BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE! MEN LIKE VAN BARFOOT.